Everlast Outfitting

G came in with a list on Friday of all the equipment that Everlast wants to give to the gym. A major world boxing competition is coming to Chicago in October, a sort of precursor to the Olympics games that the city hopes to host. Everlast, the oldest boxing equipment company in the world, has offered to donate stuff to the Chicago Park District boxing gyms. We would get gloves, mitts, heavy bags and whole lot of other brand new items. It's just a matter of figuring out where to put it all when it comes.

Steve kept saying he wasn't feeling well, and he planned to go home early. Yet, he stayed until almost the end of the evening. Graubien brought his wife, four daughters, and a friend of his daughters to the gym. I saw the girls peering in, and thinking they were just kids hanging around, I asked if they were interested in the sport. They just smiled back. Later I learned that none of them speak English. Graubien was finally able to bring them all up from Mexico, and get their immigration papers in order. Steve let a couple of the girls put gloves on and do a mock sparring session.

Then two other kids walked in, a boy and a girl. When kids see other kids in the gym, they assume it's allright for them to be there, too. "No hitting the bags," I warned those two. I explained to them the procedure they'd have to follow to join the youth boxing program. "Why are those kids in the ring?" the boy asked. "Because their father is here to watch them," I told him.

Steve read the story I had written which was printed in True Love magazine, which just hit the newsstand last week. True Love is one of the many "confession story" magazines that you see on newsstands, full of stories with titles such as "I Faked My Death To Get Away His Torture" and "Left At The Altar By A Two-Timing Groom". He liked it. I made a copy of it for Les to read. Les told me he read -- and liked -- the story I wrote that was published in True Experience a couple of months ago. I have to make a copy of that story for Steve to read.